Sun in its Flight
by Tzadikim
Summary: The Girl-Who-Lived, the smartest wizard of his age, and the second youngest girl of seven. What could possibly go wrong at Hogwarts? A take on seven years with a gender-bended cast with canon ships, too.
1. A Train and a Hat

**AN: Christ, I should have gotten this done a lot sooner. I'm really, really sorry about the (counting fingers) six-seven-ish month wait, but I've had no idea on how to make this different from most GWL fics (besides the canon ships, that is). It also doesn't help that the Superwholock fandom is going crazy on my dash now (I'm Zadi-Zadi-Zadi on tumblr).**

**The Ron/Harry friendship is one of my favourite things about the series, and I hope that I do it some justice. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. **

**I'll be writing about two or three chapters per books, so you guys know what to expect. Thanks goes to WillowBlueJay's fic that has been great inspiration. Feel free to favourite this, alert, or even leave a review to tell me what I'm doing wrong or right. I would appreciate the feedback.**

**Disclaimer**: Just because JK Rowling used a pseudonym doesn't mean that I'm her. Bloomsbury and Warner Bros makes sure of that.

**Title**: Sun in its Flight: Philosopher's Stone: A Train and a Hat

**Words**: 3K

**Summary**: The Girl-Who-Lived, the smartest wizard of his age, and the second youngest girl of seven. What could possibly go wrong at Hogwarts? A take on seven years with a gender-bended cast.

* * *

Halley Lily Potter was a strange girl in several ways.

She looked like the opposite of her aunt, uncle, and cousin. While they were all fair-haired and light-eyed, she was dark-haired and had green eyes that were hidden behind clunky glasses. In contrast to her cousin Daisy, she was a shorter and scrawnier, making the borrowed clothes only fit with needlework and a good belt.

There were several good examples to use for why she was strange: She once turned her teacher's hair blue. It was an accident, but the teacher had called Halley up for her oral report on whales, and what had caused the accident was the glower that Daisy had on her porcine face. The Dursleys didn't liked it when Halley got better marks than their precious daughter, and Daisy was good at making Halley remember that. All of the dark looks had made Halley go into a stuttering tangent on the colour of whales and then the class went into a frenzy of giggles and shrieks.

Then it was a few months after that was when she somehow ended up on the roof of her primary school. One moment Daisy and her gang of girls were chasing her, and when Halley jumped to scramble onto a box was when her whole world tilted. There was a pulling, twisting feeling that only lasted for a second, and then she was on the roof. No one had any clue how that happened, and the firemen that came to get her down kept making jokes.

The Dursleys didn't liked that either.

The Dursleys didn't liked it when anything strange happened to Halley, from shrinking sweaters, mysterious people thanking her, to disappearing glass (in which made Daisy sit further away from Halley from then on), she wondered if they were almost relieved to be rid of her when she found out that she was a witch. All of that freakiness that they hated would vanish for a school year with Halley, and she was very happy about that.

"What's Hogwarts like?" she asked Hagrid when they had finished their trip to Diagon Alley. They were getting odd looks from everyone else (muggles, she remembered what the word was) from the hooting owl in her cage, the colours of the bags that weren't normal, and the friendly half-giant that handed her food. Halley fiddled with a limp crisp, waiting for him to answer. Her encounter with the snobby girl at the shop had made her worried.

"It's home," Hagrid answered. His crinkly smile was reassuring. "Yeh get all types there, so don't yeh worry, yer do fine."

"You think so?" Halley looked up to see his face. His eyes were kind under his heavy eyebrows.

"Yeh're the daughter of Lily an' James Potter," he said. "They'll be proud of yeh no matter what."

* * *

The girl, Rory, had long hair that was a vibrant shade of red. Her freckled face was pink with excitement. She spoke in a drawling sort of voice that almost reminded Halley of Hagrid's accent. "Are—are you really her?"

Halley nodded and pushed her fringe back. It seemed strange that just a month ago she was fascinated her scar, and now she wasn't sure what she thought of it. "Er, I am."

The girl stared. "I thought Felicity and Georgia were joking, they kept doing that all week and they wouldn't stop. Even said something about giant spiders near the castle," Rory shuddered before changing tracks. "Is that where, you know, he—"

"I don't remember," Halley said. She rubbed her forehead. "Only a lot of green light."

"Wow," said Rory. She stared more at the scar, but soon realised what she was doing and looked out the window. Her cheeks were still pink.

"Is everyone in your family magical?" Halley asked, thinking about the family of redheads.

Rory looked away from the window. "Well, Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but he doesn't like to come over much."

"You must know a lot of magic already." She wondered how much she was going to struggle to keep up with her classmates.

"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Rory. "What are they like?"

"Only my aunt, uncle, and cousin are horrible, though. Wish I'd had three wizard sisters."

"Five," said Rory. Her countenance became gloomy for some reason. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts, my little brother is coming next year. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Beatrice and Charlotte have already left - Beatrice was head girl and Charlotte was captain of Quidditch. Now Priscilla's a prefect. Felicity and Georgia mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five sisters. I've got Beatrice's old robes, Charlotte's old wand, and Priscilla's old rat."

There was a defeated sigh as Halley's head was spinning as she was trying to imagine having five sisters and a little brother. The only image she could conjure were several copies of herself doing various activities. Small parts of her thought what it would be like if her parents would be alive and had a family just as large. She thought it would be even nicer to meet other Wizarding children when growing up.

She then squashed the idea and called herself foolish.

Rory reached inside her worn pink jacket and pulled out a fat grey rat, which was asleep. It had long, drooping whiskers and stubby little toes. The fur was thin with age, but overall the rat looked well kept and loved. " He hardly ever wakes up. Priscilla got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff- I mean, I got Scabbers instead." Her ears went pink. She seemed to think she'd said too much, because she went back to staring out of the window.

Halley didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, she'd never had any money in her life until a month ago, and he told Rory so, all about having to wear Daisy's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Rory up.

"... and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort."

Rory gasped.

"What?"

"You—you said his name. You-Know-Who's!" Rory sounded more shocked than impressed. "Why you do that?"

"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Halley. "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn... I bet," she added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying her a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."

That fear was quickly changed later on the train ride. So far Halley was half-explained what Quidditch was (she still had no clear understanding of the game except that the Chudley Cannons needed more luck). She wasn't feeling so afraid of going to Hogwarts now.

What she also noticed so far with Rory Weasley was that the girl looked completely different when explaining things to Halley. She looked more confident and sure, and happy to be talking to someone. She was also very enthusiastic on several topics and tried her best clarify what shows on the wireless were good and which sports teams were the best. In turn, Rory was equally curious to learn about the Muggle world and would get just as confused as Halley when told her about shows on the telly and their sports teams.

They had moved on from trading and comparing Chocolate Frog cards (several Dumbledores, two Agrippas, and a Circe) and were adventurously trying Every Flavour Beans. After some disastrous attempts with socks and dirt, Halley had got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny grey one Rory wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.

"You gotta look out for a colour like that one," she explained. "Nothing pleasant those things are. One time I got charcoal and it wouldn't leave my mouth for _ages."_

"Do you have a favourite flavour?" Halley asked.

"Bacon." Rory smiled and gave a little laugh at Halley expression. "See? Told you they got every flavour. Here, let's go find one for you to try."

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced girl Halley had passed on platform nine and three quarters came in. She looked tearful. "Sorry," she said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

When they shook their heads, she wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"He'll turn up," said Halley.

"Yes," said the girl miserably. "Well, if you see him..." She left.

"Don't know why she's so bothered," said Rory. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could—they don't do anything 'cept hop away. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."

"What's wrong with him?"

"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Rory in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..." She rummaged around in her trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something glittery and white was glinting at the end. "Stupid unicorn hair is poking out. Mum says it wouldn't do that as much if I would stop playing with it. Anyway—"

She had just raised her wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless girl was back, but this time she had a boy with him. He was already wearing his new Hogwarts robes. "Has anyone seen a toad? Nellie's lost one," he said. He had a bossy sort of voice, bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.

"We've already told her we haven't seen it," said Rory, but the boy wasn't listening, he was looking at the wand in her hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." He sat down.

Rory looked taken aback.

"Er - all right." She cleared her throat._ "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow_."

It didn't worked if there was any question. Matters only became worst when the boy, who was later called Hector Granger, gloated about all that he read and how prepared he was for his studies. Rory and Halley shared a forlorn look and both were positive that they were going to be sharing the bottom of the class together.

Even after Hector Granger left Halley's head was still reeling. "Do you think your sisters can help us with getting good marks?"

Rory snorted and slumped further in her seat, ignoring the candy next to her that could help. "The twins are just going to mess with us, and Priscilla will be reprimanding me on anything that I do wrong." She bit her thumbnail, looking worried. "Wonder how my brother will go through this next year…"

"What House do you think you'll be in?"

"Well, everyone in my family's been in Gryffindor." The glum look reappeared on Rory's face. "Bollocks, the twins are going to give me hell if I end up in Hufflepuff."

"What's your family like?" Halley asked, hoping to distract her. She would try not to think of what house she was gong to be in. Frankly, anywhere with Rory sounded nice. She could need a friend.

"Big and loud," Rory said. "My two older sisters are living on their own, and they're adventurous like that, and my mum and dad are really proud of them because not many witches have jobs like them. Priscilla wants to go into the ministry because she only likes boring stuff, the twins—" she made a noncommittal noise. "You've seen them. Mum's just glad that they haven't blown the place up yet. I got a little bother, too, Gabriel. He's going to be such a pain next year. Poor thing is all alone now."

It seemed to have worked, but Rory then said in a softer voice: "I'm going to miss my parents." The girl's forehead crinkled and she looked out the window.

Halley tried. She really did tried, but she never felt that way towards the Dursleys. It must be nice to have a family to miss, people with good memories of. "Do you want to explain Quidditch to me again?"

Rory turned her head, a small smile on her face. "Sure!" It became wider, but not reaching her eyes.

She was just taking Halley through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Nellie the toadless girl, or Hector Granger this time. Three girls entered, and Halley recognised the middle one at once: it was the pale girl from Madam Malkin's robe shop. She was looking at Halley with a lot more interest than she'd shown back in Diagon Alley. It all gave Halley a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Is it true?" the girl said with her pointed chin tilted up. "They're saying all down the train that Halley Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

"Yes," said Halley. She was looking at the other girls. Both of them were rather tall and had sullen faces. Standing on either side of the pale girl, they looked like bodyguards.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale girl carelessly, noticing where Halley was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Daria Malfoy."

Rory gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Halley would be doing the same if the situation didn't felt so prickly.

Daria Malfoy looked at her. "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford." She turned back to Halley. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

* * *

"Oh! You really got her mad," Rory whispered into Halley's ear. They were waiting with the other First Years for their Sorting. "She's still glaring at you!"

Halley looked quickly and saw Daria Malfoy sulking. She was shooting more glares at their direction. "Well, she insulted you, after all. And I didn't like what she said at Malkin's."

"Thanks," Rory said. She was smiling widely for the first time. "You're pretty wicked, Halley Potter."

Halley mumbled something, blushed, and pushed her glasses up her nose, feeling rather glad that she met the redhead…

* * *

The last thing Halley saw before the hat dropped over her eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at her. Her stomach swooped at the realization that everyone was going to be looking at her now. Next second she was looking at the black inside of the hat. She waited for her fate and tried not to feel sick.

"Hmm," said a small voice in her ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... so where shall I put you?"

Halley gripped the edges of the stool and thought, _Not Slytherin, not Slytherin. _Slytherin had Daria Malfoy who probably hated her. It had the dark wizard that killed her parents. She shouldn't go there.

"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that - no? Well, if you're sure - better be GRYFFINDOR!"

Halley heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. She took off the hat and walked shakily toward the Gryffindor table. She was so relieved to have been chosen and not put in Slytherin, she hardly noticed that she was getting the loudest cheer yet. The entire table was a chaotic blur of laughs and cheers as she joined them.

Priscilla the Prefect got up and shook her hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"

Stunned, Halley sat down and trying to comprehend what was going on around her. She turned her head and saw Rory standing with the smaller crowd of their year mates. The redhead gave her a shaky smile and held her thumb up. That was when Halley really started to believe Hagrid that she was going to do fine at Hogwarts.


	2. Friendships and a Mirror

**AN: Well, I'm in awe. Thanks, guys, for leaving reviews and faving/alerting this! About this chapter, I tried diverging it more, but you'll be seeing better versions of that in book four. Now onto another episode of 'I Should be Working on My Common App'. **

**I also hope I got Dumbledore right. Please leave a review to tell me what you think so far. **

**Disclaimer**: Just because JK Rowling used a pseudonym doesn't mean that I'm her. Bloomsbury and Warner Bros makes sure of that.

**Title**: Sun in its Flight: Philosopher's Stone: Friendships and a Mirror

**Words**: 5K

**Summary**: The Girl-Who-Lived, the smartest wizard of his age, and the second youngest girl of seven. What could possibly go wrong at Hogwarts? A take on seven years with a gender-bended cast.

* * *

"Snape hates me!" Halley bemoaned at Hagrid's table. She buried her head in her crossed arms. "It's like he's out to get me."

"That's rubbish," Hagrid said. He bustled around the cluttered room and placed a kettle over the fireplace. "He hates everyone, yeh know."

"But he seemed to really hate me."

"Halley has a point," Rory added. She kept rubbing the spot behind Fang's ear who was rather pleased by the attention. "You shoulda seen him, Hagrid. He kept asking her questions that no one else knew—"

"How's yer sister Charlotte?" Hagrid asked her, his voice cutting her sentence right through. His voice turned louder and sharper, and the kettle sloshed with water the second that it started to whistle. "I liked her a lo- great with animals. Still working at the reservation?"

While Rory told Hagrid all about Charlotte work with dragons, Halley picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cozy. It was a cutting from The Daily Prophet and went on about a break-in at Gringotts. She looked again at the article and thought about the date. Strange that was the same day that she and Hagrid went there.

"Hagrid!" said Halley, as a flurry of ideas entered her mind. "You don't think the break-in was happening when we were there at Gringotts?" There was no doubt about it; Hagrid definitely didn't meet her eyes this time. He grunted and offered her another rock cake to go with her tea.

"Now that's what I call rubbish." His face had gone pink.

Halley read the story for the third time. The vault that was searched had been emptied earlier that same day. Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for? What could be inside that was so valuable for someone to break into Gringotts of all places? Thinking to the thoughts of dragons and powerful enchantments, Halley was worried about mad and powerful the person was, and wondered if that meant that Hagrid was in danger…

When she and Rory tried to question him further, Hagrid asked: "Would any of yeh like more rock cakes?"

* * *

"You fly like your father," McGonagall said. Her mouth tilted into a smile for a brief moment. "His landings always needed work. All the times that he would ruin his shoes because he would refuse to park properly."

The words left Halley stunned. She flew like her father. A balloon of happiness swelled in her chest. What else about her was like her parents? Did they also meet their best friend at the Hogwarts' Express? Were either of them also abysmal in potions? She fought against the Dursleys' influence on being inquisitive, and Halley had the craving to learn about her parents even more.

"Professor—"

"Perhaps a different time, Potter."

McGonagall rapped her knuckles on a door and Professor Flitwick poked his head out. His short height showed what was going on inside the classroom—two girls standing with their wands pointed out. "May I borrow Wood?" she asked him.

Flitwick looked relived. "Oh, yes. Do take her before she and Flint turn to duelling each other." He turned his head to inside the class. "Wood! You're needed! And that's ten points from the both of you!"

While thankful Halley was that Wood was not a cane, but a person, she was still confused as to why Wood was needed. The older girl was a tall and muscular fifth-year who came out of Flitwick's class looking confused and sheepish when McGongall's sharp eyes were on her.

"Follow me, you two," said Professor McGonagall, and they marched on up the corridor, Wood looking curiously at Halley. "In here." Professor McGonagall pointed them into a classroom that was empty except for Peeves, who was busy writing rude words on the blackboard. "Out, Peeves!" she barked. Peeves threw the chalk into a bin, which clanged loudly, and he swooped out cursing.

Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind him and turned to face the two girls.

"Potter, this is Olivia Wood. Wood—I've found you a Seeker."

Wood's expression changed from puzzlement to delight. "I know that you were fuming about how try-outs went, but are you being absolutely serious, Professor?"

"Absolutely," said Professor McGonagall crisply. "The girl's a natural. I've never seen anything like it. Was that your first time on a broom, Potter?"

Halley nodded silently. She didn't have a clue what was going on, but she didn't seem to be being expelled, and some of the feeling started coming back to her legs. _It looks like I won't be being Hagrid assistant anymore,_ she thought, dispelling the image of her wearing an identical coat and a matching umbrella

"She caught that thing in her hand after a fifty-foot dive," Professor McGonagall told Wood. "Didn't even scratch herself. Charlotte Weasley couldn't have done it."

The conversation started to make sense when Quidditch was brought up. And that Halley was going to become Gryffindor's new Seeker. "When do I start?"

* * *

There were several reactions to Halley being on the team:

Rory was amazed and offered to go through Quidditch through the ages with her.

The Weasley twins had immediately came over and congratulated her, saying that Wood was skipping from pure joy.

The further reaction from those two came from Daria Malfoy and flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. The Slytherin now inspired a certain sort of hate from Halley, with the snobby attitude and the pleasure that she gained from teasing others. She reminded Halley of Daisy but with paler hair and with magic.

"Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?" Malfoy smoothed down the front of her robes. "Pity to think that the great Halley Potter was expelled due to being brave."

"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your friends with you," said Halley. There was nothing that either of them could do with the High Table full of watching teachers, but they could all make talk and glare,

"I'd take you on anytime on my own," said Malfoy. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only—no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"

"Of course she has," said Rory, wheeling around. "I'm her second, who's yours?"

What was going on? Halley's head went from looking at her friend's with shock to Malfoy's, waiting to see her reaction. The slice of pie in her stomach suddenly became heavy. Malfoy then mentioned Crabbe being her second, and that it would happen tonight at midnight in the Trophy Room. The sudden surge of confidence in Rory worried her. The redhead girl was now standing very straight in her seat, eyes alight and cheeks rosy.

"What is a wizard's duel?" said Halley. "And what do you mean, you're my second?"

"Well, a second's to take over if you die," said Rory casually, getting started at last on her cold pie. Her fork missed the piece entirely and stabbed the table.

Die? Now Halley was really worried.

Catching the look on her face, Rory added quickly, "But most people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet she expected you to refuse, anyways."

"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?"

"Throw it away and punch her on the nose," Rory suggested. She leaned her elbow on the table and held her chin up with her hand. "Or you can mess up her hair. Bet that'll get the same reaction."

"Or you can go to a teacher," a new voice suggested. They looked up and saw Hector Granger. He was clutching several books to his chest.

"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" said Rory. She stabbed her pie.

Hector ignored her and spoke to Halley. "I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying—"

"No, really?" Rory muttered, stabbing more of her pie. "Go on."

Hector went on, but sent a quick glare at the girl,"—and you musn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."

"This isn't any of your business," said Halley.

"So long," said Rory with a small wave of her hand.

* * *

"BLOODY HELL! WHAT IS THAT?!"

Hector clamped a hand over Rory's mouth. "Shh! Don't wake it!"

Halley let out a silent moan in agreement. She could feel Nellie shaking next to her. Her slippers felt cold and wet from the slobber on the ground. Her eyes travelled from the puddle and went up to see the sleeping faces of the monsters. Sure she had seen and heard mentions of the more fantastical creatures, but seeing it on the other hand…

Then it woke. Lids opening to show mad eyes, rolling large heads, and lips curling back to show pointy rows of teeth…

The four students started screaming.

Halley groped for the doorknob—between Filch and death, she'd take Filch. They fell backward—Halley slammed the door shut, and they ran, they almost flew, back down the corridor. She never knew that she could run that fast, but apparently the fear of a hungry monster was a good enough motivation for anything.

They didn't stop running until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.

"Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at their bathrobes hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces.

"Never mind that—pig snout, pig snout," panted Halley, and the portrait swung forward. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs. It was a while before any of them said anything. Nellie, indeed, looked as if she'd never speak again. The blonde girl made a strange sort of noise and went back up to her room.

"What do you think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Rory finally. Out of the four of them, she had most colour in her face. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

Hector had got both his breath and his bad temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" he snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Halley suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."

"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something." He stood up, glaring at them. The effect didn't fully work with his fluffy blue robe on. "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed—or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

Rory stared after him, mouth open. "Why would we mind?" she said. "Not like you were dragged against your will or anything."

Hector stopped at the top of the stairs and turned to give the redhead a nasty glare before he closed the door.

"Really," Rory said to Halley. "He needs to get his priorities straight."

But Hector had given her something else to think about as she climbed back into bed. The dog was guarding something… What had Hagrid said? Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide—except perhaps Hogwarts.

It looked as though Halley had found out where the grubby little package from vault seven hundred and thirteen was.

* * *

Troll in the dungeons. First it was a massive three-headed dog, and now it was a troll. What horrible monster wasn't going to come out of a Hogwarts' hallway next?

"Can you smell something?" Rory whispered.

Halley sniffed and a foul stench reached her nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean. Her stomach turned the sweets that she ate and there was the taste of bile.

And then they hear it—a low grunting, and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet.

Rory pointed—at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving toward them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight.

It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut.

It had legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long. The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.

"The key's in the lock," Halley muttered. "We could lock it in."

"Good idea," said Rory nervously. "Keep it in a room and then we get some teachers. We're going to get so many points for this!"

They edged toward the open door, mouths dry, praying the troll wasn't about to come out of it. With one great leap, Halley managed to grab the key, slam the door, and lock it. She turned to Rory and they high-fived. "Excellent!" she said. "Now let's go get a teacher—"

Then there was a high-pitched terrified scream from inside the locked room. For a beat of silence, the two girls looked at each other.

"Oh, no," said Rory, pale as the Bloody Baron. Her blue eyes became incredibly wide. "Hector's in there!"

"Merlin," Halley croaked.

They immediately fumbled with the key, and pushed their way inside to save him. Entering the room, they saw what they feared: Hector Granger was shrinking against the wall opposite, looking as if he was about to faint. The troll was advancing on him, knocking the sinks off the walls as it went.

"Confuse it!" Halley said desperately to Rory, and, seizing a tap, she threw it as hard as she could against the wall.

The troll stopped a few feet from Hector. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean little eyes saw Halley. It hesitated, then made for her instead, lifting its club as it went. She screamed, scrambling to get out of the way.

"Oy, you! Pea-brain!" Rory yelled from the other side of the chamber, and she threw a metal pipe at it. The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning its ugly snout toward Halley instead, giving Halley time to run around it.

"Come on, run, run!" Halley yelled at Hector, trying to pull him toward the door, but he couldn't move, he was still flat against the wall, his mouth open with terror. The shouting and the echoes seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared again and started toward Rory, who was nearest and had no way to escape.

Halley then did something that was both very brave and very stupid: she took a great running jump (and was, for once, grateful for all of the running practice that the Dursleys gave her) and managed to fasten her arms around the troll's neck from behind. It was a more insane feeling than flying, and it was definitely more dangerous.

The troll couldn't feel Halley hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry's wand had still been in her hand when she'd jumped- it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils. It was a spur-of-the-moment idea, and she hoped that her wand wasn't going to break because of it.

Howling with pain, the troll twisted and flailed its club, with Halley clinging on for dear life; any second, the troll was going to rip her off or catch her a terrible blow with the club. Neither idea sounded good.

Hector had sunk to the floor in fright; Rory pulled out her own wand—not knowing what she was going to do she heard herself cry the first spell that came into her head: "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The club flew suddenly out of the troll's hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over—and dropped, with a sickening crack, onto its owner's head. The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat onto its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.

Halley was shaking, still hanging onto the back of the troll's neck. She rolled herself off, gasping and stood up on quivering legs. "Give—give me a warning next time, okay?"

Rory was standing there with her wand still raised, staring at what she had done. Her mouth hanged open, unable to speak.

It was Hector who spoke first, his voice was small and shaky. "It's—it's dead, right? You killed it?"

"I don't think so," said Halley, "I think it's just been knocked out." She bent down and with some hesitation she pulled her wand out of the troll's nose. Thankfully, the troll didn't wake, but her wand was covered in what looked like lumpy grey glue. Looking away as the need to vomit came up again, she tried to wipe it on the troll's trousers. "Eww—troll boogers."

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the three of them look up. They hadn't realised what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll's roar.

A moment, later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart.

Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Rory and Halley. Halley had never seen her look so angry. With her white lips and flaring nostrils, a few strands of hair escaped from her tight bun.

The wish of fifty points from Gryffindor faded, and Halley was sure that her luck was finally out. It looked as though she was going to become Hagrid's assistant after all.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice. Halley looked at Rory, who was still standing with her wand in the air. She nudged her, and the wand was sheepishly lowered. "Why aren't you in your dormitory?"

Snape gave Halley a quick yet piercing look that gave her the feeling that she had some something wrong again.

Then a small voice came out of the shadows.

"Please, Professor McGonagall—they were looking for me."

"Mr Granger! What are you doing in the girl's bathroom?"

Hector had managed to get to his feet at last. He was still pale in the face and his robes were soaked and covered in plaster. "I went looking for the troll because I—I thought I could deal with it on my own—you know, because I've read all about them."

Rory dropped her wand and looked as though someone had told her that a fundamental truth in the universe was wrong. Hector Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher? What was next? Him slacking off on homework?

"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Halley stuck her wand up its nose and Rory knocked it out with its own club. There wasn't any time to contact any of you, and they were being so brave. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."

"Well—in that case…" said Professor McGonagall, staring at the three of them, "Mr Granger, you foolish boy, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"

Hector hung his head. Halley was speechless. Hector was the last person to do anything against the rules, and here he was, pretending he had to get them out of trouble.

Snape looked as through Christmas came early.

"Mr Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."

Hector left, but they could see him waiting for them near the door outside. There was a cough from their professor, and they could hear him walking away.

Professor McGonagall turned to Halley and Rory. The two girls shared a quick look, and Halley wondered if there was enough room in Hagrid's cabin for the both of them. "Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this."

The look on Snape's face recoiled. "Minerva!"

"These two risked their lives to save that boy." The professor's hands were on her hips, and her nostrils were flaring again. "That will be enough for tonight. You two," she faced them. "Go back to your dormitory before you two are foolish enough to adventure in the Forbidden Forest next."

Rory and Halley hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until they had climbed two floors up. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else.

They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Pig snout," they said and entered.

The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. Hector, however, stood alone by the door, waiting for them. There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, none of them looking at each other, they all said "Thanks," and hurried off to get plates.

They were greeted warmly by their housemates and were fretted over by Priscilla. They all wanted to know if they had saw the troll, and rumours were already spreading. The three of them didn't speak and decided to sit next to each other near the fireplace.

Hector Granger became their friend after all, because when two witches and a wizard knock out a twelve-foot mountain troll could ensure a deep bond between them.

* * *

"Oh." Halley pressed her face closer to the mirror. Her eyes burned with unshed tears at seeing her parents standing before her. It seemed almost mocking that a panel of glass separated them, but there they were—finally seeing them for the first time. She could see the resemble that Hagrid and others had told her about. She had her mother's green eyes and her father's messy dark hair. Upon a closer inspection, she could see _more_. Like how she had her father's smile and her mother's chin…

Halley wiped her eyes with the sleeve of the jumper that Mrs Weasley made. She took a few steps back and saw that there were more people in the reflection. There were family, those with her eyes, knobby knees, and more smiling resemblances that made her heart ache with a powerful happiness and tragic sadness.

Halley was looking at her family, for the first time in her life.

How long he she there, she didn't know. The reflections did not fade and she looked and looked until a distant noise brought her back to her senses. She couldn't stay here, she had to find her way back to bed. She tore her eyes away from her mother's face, whispered, "I'll come back," and hurried from the room.

The next night Halley brought Rory. She was eager to show her friend what her family looked like, but what the redhead saw wasn't the Potter family at all.

"I see me—I look older!" Rory rubbed her eyes before looking again, her mouth opened in disbelief. "Halley, look! I'm wearing a Head Girl badge, and I'm holding—no way! I'm holding the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup! And I see—"

"But—but my family…" Halley said. She stood closer to Rory so that her reflection was also in the mirror, but she couldn't see anything. Did that meant that she could no longer see her family?!

"I dunno what this mirror does, but I like it," Rory said. She turned and looked excitedly at Halley. "Do you think it shows the future?"

"How can it? All my family are dead- let me have another look-"

"You had it to yourself all last night, give me a bit more time."

"You're only holding the Quidditch cup, what's interesting about that? I want to see my parents."

"Don't push me-"

A sudden noise outside in the corridor put an end to their discussion. They hadn't realised how loudly they had been talking.

"Come on." Halley wished that her voice didn't sounded so thick. She held out a part of the Invisibility Cloak. "Let's go."

* * *

"You're saying that it's because of my mum that Quirrell couldn't touch me?" Halley asked. She had her knees tucked under her chin and her glasses low on her nose. She felt exhausted from her encounter from the Defence professor and Voldemort, and a bitter taste filled her mouth. She looked down at her hands, not sure how to feel that her mother's last legacy was used in a fight for her life.

"Love," Dumbledore said. He was now very interested in a bird out on the windowsill, which gave Halley time to dry her eyes on the sheet. "It is always more powerful than we think it is. Amazing how that single emotion can cause so much to happen…"

Halley found her voice. "And there's the cloak—the Invisibility Cloak, sir. Do you know who gave it to me?"

"Ah — your father happened to leave it in my possession, and I thought you might like it." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Useful things… your father used it mainly for sneaking off to the kitchens to steal food when he was here."

She felt the tears coming back and she tried to hide it. She sniffed a thank you when Dumbledore handed her a tissue. "Now, Miss Potter," he said in a soft voice. "Don't pity feel the fact that you are alone because you are not. Together with Miss Weasley and Mr Granger, you three managed to show one of the Darkest wizards alive that friendship does matter. You three showed him how friendship, bravery, and sacrifice can mean so much more than power."

Halley dabbed the corners of her eyes. "Didn't do much for my parents, now did it?"

"They lived a life full of love," Dumbledore said. He was interested in the bird again, but it had flown away. "That is all we can ever ask for. That is all we can ever do."

* * *

"Please write to me." Hector joined them as they were let off the train. "I think my summer will be very boring without you two."

"Why wouldn't I?" Rory sounded almost hurt by this. "You also have to come by this summer, my parents would love you both."

Halley smiled, remembering what was said during Christmas about meeting the Weasleys. "I would love that."

Hector waved at some of their housemates nearby. He was looking very different than from the first time that Halley had seen him. He looked truly happy. "I'll start writing the second I get home."

"Thanks," Halley said to her friends. "I don't think I would have survived the year without the both of you." People jostled them as they moved forward toward the gateway back to the Muggle world. Some of them called:

"Bye, Halley!"

"See you, Potter!"

"Still famous," said Rory, grinning at her.

"Not where I'm going, I promise you," said Halley.

She, Rory, and Hector passed through the gateway together. "Mum! I see them, I see her!"

It was Gabriel Weasley, Rory's youngest stood next to his mum and was waving wildly at them. He looked much like his sisters with the bright red hair and with his excited expression. "I see her, Mum!"

"Be quiet, Gabriel, and it's rude to point."

Mrs Weasley smiled down at them.

"Busy year?" she said.

"Very," said Halley. "Thanks for the fudge and the sweater, Mrs Weasley."

"Oh, it was nothing, dear."

"Ready, are you?"

It was Uncle Vernon, still purple-faced, still moustached, still looking furious at the nerve of Halley, carrying an owl in a cage in a station full of ordinary people. Behind him stood Aunt Petunia and Daisy, looking terrified at the very sight of Halley. She smiled brightly at her family.

"You must be Halley's family!" said Mrs Weasley. She held out her hand for them to shake. "I'm Mrs Weasley, and you have raised such a nice young girl."

"In a manner of speaking," said Uncle Vernon, ignoring the hand. "Hurry up, girl, we haven't got all day." He walked away.

Halley hung back for a last word with Rory and Hector.

"See you over the summer, then."

"Hope you have — er — a good holiday," said Hector, looking uncertainly after Uncle Vernon, shocked that anyone could be so unpleasant.

"Oh, I will," said Halley, and they were surprised at the grin that was spreading over her face. "They don't know we're not allowed to use magic at home. I'm going to have a lot of fun with Daisy this summer…"


	3. The Burrow and Blood

**AN: To clear things up, characters will die and I will go into explaining why their deaths are significant when I get to books four, five and seven. How else am I going to get practice killing off characters in my original stories if I can't kill JKR's? **

**Thanks to everyone who has added this to their alerts, favourites list, been reviewing, and even just reading. Let me know what you guys like so far and are excited to see in the future. I, personally, love Ron. He's a fun character no matter what gender to write. Feel free to also point out any SPaG and continuity/canon mistakes, I feel pretty embarrassed when I publish a glaring error. **

**Side note: Why do so many fics ignore the Deathday Party? Doesn't Head Hockey amuse anyone these days?**

**Part two of this chapter may take a while with school starting up soon, but there may be some early snippets on my tumblr (Zadi-Zadi-Zadi). **

**Disclaimer**: Just because JK Rowling used a pseudonym doesn't mean that I'm her. Bloomsbury and Warner Bros makes sure of that.

**Title**: Sun in its Flight: Chamber of Secrets: The Burrow and Blood

**Words**: 5K

**Summary**: The Girl-Who-Lived, the smartest wizard of his age, and the second youngest girl of seven. What could possibly go wrong at Hogwarts? A take on seven years with a gender-bended cast with canon ships, too.

* * *

Halley Potter was having a horrible birthday. Her owl was padlocked, her books locked away, and no letters from any of her friends since school was let out. She almost wanted to mention the significance of the date to the Dursleys—just to see their reactions as they remembered what had happened last year, but the big argument at breakfast had ruined all of Halley's confidence. It was only a small consolation that Uncle Vernon had guests coming over tonight that would spare her from a large punishment.

Following his command on not disrupting Aunt Petunia's cleaning session, Halley had ventured out to the garden to sulk. If only she was allowed to use magic outside of school, but the thought had conjured the voices of her two dear friends and what they would say.

Hector with his bushy brown hair and his worried voice: "Oh, you shouldn't! Imagine what the teachers would think? You don't want to get into trouble before school starts!"

Or Rory with her red mane and cheeky smile: "Pfft! Mum told me about this jinx that can make someone's boogers become bats! Wanna see if it works?"

Except that Halley didn't know for sure if her best friends would say that, because she hasn't heard from them in a month now. At first she thought that they were busy with settling back in, and she herself had taken up the time to mess with Daisy's mind with nonsense words. Now that didn't seemed to be the case, even with Rory saying that Halley should meet her family over the holiday. By the time her birthday came around, Halley was left in an even gloomier state of mind (because what was the use of knowing about the magical world if she had no one to share it with?).

She was so sure at this point that she would give anything to see that Hogwarts was real, and she wasn't actually a raving lunatic with a pet owl. Even a look from her archenemy Daria Malfoy or the sneering face of her Potions professor would be grateful. That was saying something because she had never hated two people so much before.

Her thoughts had drifted to the spectacular and life-threatening events that had transpired at school when a bush was staring back at her. Two enormous eyes were peering at her though the leaves, widened and then vanished at her small shriek (_Gryffindors don't shriek,_ said a voice in the back of her mind that sounded suspiciously like Rory's. _We roar_). But it was too late to change that and she fell off the bench, surprised at what happened.

"Not so special now, are you?" jeered Daisy, seemingly unaware of what could be hiding in her mother's foliage. She had walked outside, her blonde pigtails jiggled with each step. Halley was torn between checking the bush or glaring at her lovely cousin. She towered over the shorter girl in her ruffled pink dress. "I know what today is…" she sang.

That had sparked something inside of Halley, all of the annoyance and anger from that day made the grim feelings go away. She pushed herself up to her feet and tried to regain more of her nerves (it was also easier to deal with Daisy rather than check everywhere for floating eyes). "Finally know all the days of the week?" said Halley. "Good for you, I see. Will Mummy be buying you another new dress?"

"Today is your _birthday_," emphasised Daisy. "Are you too freakish for your freaky friends to send you anything? No cards, no letters, what sort goes to that school, anyway?"

"The kind that your parents wouldn't want you to speak about," Halley said coolly. She diverted her eyes and looked at the bush, channeling out Daisy's voice as she went on making insults. For once, Halley was glad that she'd heard worst from Malfoy and Snape, because her cousin had nothing on them.

"Why you keep staring at that bush?" Daisy's voice whined.

"Oh. You know." Halley made a noncommittal gesture of her hand, but smiling slightly. "I'm trying to remember how to set things on fire. I better practice before school starts."

Daisy stumbled backwards, tripping on the sagging frills of her dress. Panic blossomed over her pink face and trembled throughout her blonde curls. "Y-you can't—Mum would be mad—Dad'll kick you out—you haven't got any friends to take you—"

_I have friends_, Halley venomously thought, clearly picturing the faces of Rory and Hector.

She then did something very stupid.

_"Jiggery pokery,"_ Halley said, raising a hand at the bush. She spoke more nonsense words fiercely. "_Hocus pocus—squiggly wiggley—"_

* * *

"This is insane!" Halley's voice was hoarse from sleep and disuse. "Whose idea was this?"

Felicity and Georgia pointed at Rory who was smiling sheepishly. "You weren't the one answering our letters. What's been going on, mate? I sent you _twelve_ letters, and then Dad says something about you getting an official warning—"

"How?" Halley asked.

"Dad works in the Ministry, and you know we're not suppose to be doing spells outside of school." Rory's eyebrow furrowed and she piercingly looked at her friend, perhaps wondering if she had lost it.

Halley waved a hand to the flying car. "Really? _You're_ telling me this?"

"Doesn't count." Rory's face flushed. "Dad has this whole collection of muggle stuff and he likes to tinker and see what makes them tick."

"Tinker," Halley repeated as she looked at the Ford Angelina. It was bobbing outside of her window. During a more acceptable time she would love to know how Mr Weasley enchanted a car to fly, but now she was more worried about the Dursleys and getting any more letters from the Ministry.

"Yeah," Rory's voice dropped. "It's nothing like doing magic in front of those muggles that makes the Ministry send you a letter—"

"It wasn't me!" Halley insisted. "I tried to tell you, but it wasn't me that did magic—maybe if we tell the Ministry what happened then they won't snap my wand kept me here forever—"

"You're gibbering," Rory said. "It's your first warning, so of course they won't be snapping your wand. Bollocks to staying here forever—you're coming with us!"

Halley was stunned and looked at her friend owlishly. "But—magic—"

"Have you met the twins?" Rory asked. She jerked her head at them as they waved joyfully. "Honestly, if anyone knows how to pull this off, then it's them. Now chin up and _come on!" _

Soon ropes were tied and broke off the bars on the window, her Hogwarts stuff was collected (and she learned a thing or two about lock picking), climbed out of the window as Uncle Vernon shouted and swore at them—and then Halley was free!

* * *

"Aurora Muriel Weasley! Felicity Gloria Weasley! Georgia Fiona Weasley!"

It was amazing how a kindly looking, jumper-knitting Mrs Weasley resembled a sabre-tooth tiger when finding them. She was marching over the yard, scattering chickens and her pink bathrobe fluttering menacingly behind her.

"Bollocks," said Georgia.

"I want that on my tombstone," Felicity said in a quick whisper. "I died with bollocks, thank you very much."

Rory gawked and dropped Halley's trunk near her foot.

_"So,"_ Mrs Weasley said.

"Morning, Mum," croaked Georgia. She switched tactics and smiled winningly. "Isn't it amazing how beautiful the sunrise is?"

That failed.

Mrs Weasley narrowed her eyes. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been?" Her voice became a deadly whisper. "Would you like to know?"

"Mum!" Felicity took over. "You see, we had—"

Even though the three of the Weasley girls had at least a few inches or more on their mother, she seemed taller than all of them combined when the rage surfaced. "_Beds empty! No note! Car gone—could have crashed—out of my mind with worry—did you care?—never, as long I've lived—wait until your father gets home—never had this much from Beatrice or Charlotte or Priscilla—"_

"Perfect Prefect Priscilla," muttered Felicity.

"YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PRISCILLA'S BOOK!" Mrs Weasley yelled. Spots of colour appeared on her cheeks, and she prodded a finger in Felicity's stomach. "All of you could have _died_, you could have been _seen_, your father could have lost his _job_—"

It seemed to gone on for hours until Mrs Weasley shouted herself hoarse from worry before she turned on Halley, who backed away.

"I'm very pleased to see you, Halley, dear," she said in a softer voice. A worry line was creased on her forehead. "Come in and have some breakfast."

The kitchen in the Burrow was the exact opposite of the one in Privet Drive. It was small, cluttered, and warm. A peculiar clock with one hand and no numbers was placed on a wall, strange books on the mantle place proclaimed charms to help cook and bake, and there was even an old radio near the sink mentioned the Witching Hour was about to start.

Piping hot sausages and eggs were given out to each child, Halley given more when each Weasley girl tried to speak their part. "I don't care that it was cloudy out," Mrs Weasley said. "I only care about how much danger you girls were in. We were worried about you, too, dear," she said to Halley. "Any day now and we would have gone right over to collect you."

Halley choked on a sausage at the idea of the Dursleys opening their door to see the Weasley family. It was both wonderful and horrifying.

At the moment, a diversion came in the form of a young boy with red hair. He appeared in the kitchen, yawning and unaware of everything. He rubbed his eyes and was about to sit down in the empty seat next to Halley when he actually saw her. His brown eyes went wide, he gave a small yelp, and ran out of the kitchen.

Halley wondered what she did wrong.

"Gabriel," said Rory in an undertone to Halley. She wasn't trying hard to hide her smile. "My brother. He's been talking about you all summer." Anything else she was going to say evaporated into giggles.

"He'll be wanting your autograph, Halley," Felicity sniggered, but caught her mother's eye her face over her plate without another word.

"Leave your brother alone," Mrs Weasley instructed. "He's nervous enough about starting Hogwarts. I don't want any of you to add more to that. Now hurry on eating, because there are chores to do!"

* * *

The gnome snarled at Halley. Pudgy fists and legs thrashed, making her hold on it difficult.

Funny how she pictured them to be cute like the garden ornaments that looked like Santa or holding fishing poles, so she was very disappointed to see them as actual grubby, potato-looking monsters. "Just chuck it?" she asked.

Rory nodded and was sucking on a bite that a gnome gave her. "Effing 'arholes," she mumbled crossly. She mimicked a lassoing and then throwing motion, like she had down before, with her free arm. Halley held the magical creatures at arm's length, faltered at the fact that she was throwing a live animal, and then the stupid thing sensed weakness. It sank its razor-sharp teeth in a fierce bite, and she was frantically trying to shake it off—until—

"Not bad," Felicity said. She let out an appreciative whistle as the gnome landed very far away from the hedge.

"See, Rory? That's how you beat my record," added Georgia. "All you need to do is to shriek like a messy-haired midget."

"Bugger off," Rory said. Her face had gotten pink. "Halley and I got this."

Halley smiled and soon the air was soon thick was flying gnomes.

"Is this normal?" she asked when any more visible gnomes disappeared into a hedge on the opposite side of the field. They looked more like scowling children than the biting menaces that she was starting to know.

"Sadly," Rory sighed. They love it here, but I think they're mad from all of the spinning and throwing." She shook her head sadly. "Enough on that, I want to show you around."

After a very interesting encounter with Mr Weasley ("Halley? Halley who? Oh! That Halley! Very pleased to meet you, and Rory has told us so much…"), assuring him that his flying car worked, evading Mrs Weasley as she demanded to know more about a loophole in a law, then Halley was able to get a look of what Rory's room was like.

They walked up steps that reminded her of the stairways of Hogwarts, she had gotten a glimpse of Gabriel who was hiding in his room ("When did he got so shy?" Rory said. "He almost never shuts up, you know. He can ramble on about nothing for hours."), and after another flight or so was when Halley able to see the small plaque that was on a door that read _Rory's Room_.

It was almost blindingly orange on the inside. Posters of the Chudley Cannons were plastered all over the walls, schoolbooks and comics were scattered over the floor, Scabbers was snoozing on a windowsill, and there was a great view of the gardens outside. Halley looked around, almost tripping over some Self-Shuffling cards, and she was finding the room to be one of the more fascinating places that she had been to. Rory was watching her, waiting for an opinion. "I know it's small," she said quickly. "There's this ghoul right above and it likes to moan and clang at times, and you can hear the twins make these loud explosions…"

Halley was grinning. "This is the best house I've ever been in."

Rory's ears went pink. "It's the only wizarding house you've ever been in."

* * *

Halley was enjoying life at the Burrow. Everything was loud and unexpected and _magic_. It was incredible to live among wizards, and she was often surprised at what happened.

"Your bathroom mirror just talked to me," she said on her first night. "It told me that my pyjamas are too big and I look scruffy."

"Ignore it," Rory said from her bed. "It's been giving me the same advice for years."

Or on another night, right before bed, there was this echoing boom from the floor below. The wooden panels shuddered and Scabbers scrambled to Rory's pillow. "That's normal," she said to Halley shocked face, petting her frightened pet. "Really, it is. We just don't bother asking them what they're up to anymore."

Perhaps the most wonderful thing about the Burrow was that everyone accepted her. Mrs Weasley had let her borrow some of Rory's clothing and gave her extra servings of food, even promising one day to teach her how to make treacle tart. Mr Weasley was always inquisitive on how Muggles lived, and always had a question at hand. The twins were quick to leave some sort of prank on her that she was able to laugh off, and Priscilla was right on their heels and would profusely apologise for the lack of tact her sisters had. Letters even came in from Hector ("Of all the foolish things you two had to do, it had to involve a flying car!"), and Rory's two oldest sisters Beatrice and Charlotte who were having adventures with their jobs.

"Does Beatrice fight mummies?" Halley had asked after learning what happened in Egypt.

"Nah, I think blasting them depends on the curses that the tomb has." Rory read over the newest letter. "Says here that there were some really miffed ghosts, though."

Another Weasley that she didn't get to see much was Gabriel who would drop whatever he was holding and leave the room, blushing. Or he was seen outside with their neighbour who also a wizard, a curious family known as the Lovegoods. Mrs Weasley had assured her that he wasn't like that, but needed time to open up to her. "Boys can be strange that way," she said. "Best at times to let some things run their course."

Halley's school letter even arrived with theirs. They came during breakfast and the pile was there at the kitchen table, waiting for them, Gabriel was already at the table, and the moment he saw Halley he knocked over his empty porridge bowl to the floor. He dived under to retrieve it with his glowing like the setting sun. Halley sat down and took the toast that Mrs Weasley offered.

"Dumbledore doesn't miss a thing," Mrs Weasley said as she handed her sleepy children food. With a wave of her wand the letters were sorted out and given to each student. Halley noticed with a smile that the address read: First Room on the Third Floor, The Burrow. There was some silence as they were read, and her forehead creased as Halley saw that all of the Defence Against the Dark Arts books were by the same person.

"Not you, too," Felicity sighed as she peered over Halley's shoulder. "We also got Lockhart's books. Bloody great that is."

"That lot won't come cheap," said Georgia with a quick look at her parents. "His books are really expensive…"

"We'll manage," said Mrs Weasley calmly, but her face was worried. "Gabriel will be getting his things secondhand, anyway…"

"Are you looking forward to going to Hogwarts?" Halley asked him. Gabriel nodded hurriedly, blushing to the roots of his flaming hair, and placed his elbow in the butter dish. Realising what he did, he tried to appear nonchalant but failed when his elbow skidded off the dish and the table.

* * *

"What happened this time?" Hector said.

Halley knew that her glorious luck was out when she messed up with the Floo Powder and almost ran into the Malfoys in Knockturn Alley. Thankfully, Hagrid found her before they did. After that she met up with Hector and the Weasleys near Gringotts. "Travelling problems," she said. All of her worries vanished when she spent a good amount of her morning shopping with her friends and eating ice cream, but that all changed when they entered Flourish and Blotts.

"What is with this crowd?" Hector grumbled as the shelves that held their schoolbooks were cut off. "You would think someone famous is here."

"I knew it," Rory said solemnly. "Halley, this is all for you. Hurry, we must think of a wonderful escape plan. I say we hide in plain sight."

Halley snorted and then she spotted a colourful banner. "Wait. Who's that author of those books that we need for Defence again?"

"Gilderoy Lockhart," Hector said. He followed her gaze and frowned. "As much as I would love to meet him, now is not the time. We are on a schedule, for Merlin's sake!"

"I wouldn't mind seeing him." Rory's cheeks were pink and she stood on the tips of her toes to see through the crowd. "He has a lovely smile."

Hector gave her a bewildered look.

The three of them struggled to get inside, but they did—their small bodies proving useful to move through the heavy crowd. Caching up with Mrs and Mr Weasley and Mrs and Mr Granger, they were soon able to see the glorious Lockhart himself. In Halley's opinion, he looked exactly like his picture on his books. She wasn't sure how it was possible for someone's hair could be that perfectly wavy and teeth so blinding all the time, but he somehow knew. It made her feel self-conscious about her messy hair.

Rory was fingering through her own hair that had gotten messy, and wasn't aware of a photographer that stepped on her foot. "Out of the way, missy!" he snarled. "This is for the _Daily Prophet—"_

"Big deal," snapped Rory who quickly became her old self.

Gilderoy Lockhart heard her. He looked up. He saw Rory—and then he saw Halley. He stared. Halley gulped. Then he leapt up to his feet and positively shouted, "It _can't_ be Halley Potter?"

"If I ever start acting like that," Halley told her sniggering friends when she was able to escape most of the limelight (and Lockhart who was eager to get several pictures with her). "Then _please_ bash me over the head with something."

"I don't think our professor would like that," said Rory. "Can you believe it?"

"Judging by his work, he seems qualified," said Hector almost grudgingly. "But you would think he saved the Wizarding World by the looks of the people here."

Halley made her way to the edge of the room, ignoring whatever jokes Rory had ought up of for the situation, and found the rest of the Weasleys. Gabriel was standing next to his new cauldron. "You can have these," she mumbled to him, tipping the free books into his cauldron. "I can buy my own—"

"Wasn't that lovely, Potter? I bet you enjoyed that," said a voice that Halley did not wanted to hear. She straightened up and found herself face-to-face with Daria Malfoy, who was wearing her usual sneer. Her perfect white-blonde hair could give Lockhart's a run for its money.

_"Famous_ Halley Potter," Malfoy continued when Halley didn't speak. "Can't even enter a _bookshop_ without making the front page."

There was the clang of something striking metal. "Leave her alone, she didn't want that!" said Gabriel. He jumped to his feet and was glaring at Malfoy with his bright eyes. Halley held onto his arm, hoping that he wasn't going to react further like Rory would do. The last thing she was sure that Mrs Weasley wanted would be for one of her own starting a fight.

"It's cute, Potter," drawled Malfoy, clearly enjoying the scene that she was causing. "You got yourself a guard dog _and_ a boyfriend all in one."

Gabriel's face went scarlet, and his shoulders slumped when his newfound confidence faltered. Halley was prepared to get the smug look off Malfoy's face when Rory and Hector came back, holding their stacks of Lockhart's books.

"Oh, it's you," said Rory, looking at Malfoy as if she was a Garden Gnome that wandered back to the garden. "Bet you're surprised to see Halley here, eh?"

Malfoy was ready and spent her time causally poking at the Weasleys' financial problems. Matters escalated when their parents became involved, and Mr Weasley soon became everyone's hero when he started a fight with Mr Malfoy. The children were clamoring over him, proud of the act, while Mrs Weasley sighed and shook her head. "Arthur," she admonished. "That is no way to set an example for your children."

* * *

"Mum is going to kill me," Rory said brightly. "It's been nice knowing you, mate."

"Your mum isn't going to kill you," Halley said, but not believing the words.

"Don't be daft." She waved Hector over. "And make sure that my replacement is a redhead and is properly trained in all things."

"Like _flying_ a car!" Hector moaned. "What were you two thinking? Halley, you have an owl! You could have used Hedwig!"

Halley fought down another wave of shame. "I got enough of that from McGonagall, I don't need it from you, too."

"We couldn't get through the barrier," Rory said, and then her face went white. "What did Mum think?" She turned around and spotted her brother. "Oi! Gabriel! What did Mum think what happened?"

Her brother looked up from his spot on the couch, writing something in a book. "She wasn't happy about not sending the two of you off," he said cheerfully, his face was pink since Halley was near. "You're doomed once she finds out about the car, too."

Rory moaned into her hands, but Halley was mostly surprised at hearing him speak with full sentences.

* * *

Rory became moodier throughout the week. Between the Howler and her broken wand, any sunnier portions of her attitude seemed to be vanishing. "He's a git," she said after their first Defence class. Her secondhand robe now had a large tear at the bottom hem from a disgruntled pixie. "I can't believe that tosser is teaching us."

"I can't believe that only this morning you were outlining his lessons with hearts," Hector said, and he quickly hid his smile. He appeared to be in a good mood and was twirling his wand in his hand, obviously proud of the spellwork that he did.

"I can't believe he wants us to act out parts in his books," Halley said. She bit on a thumbnail, trying not to dwell the times that she had to do that in her old primary school. "I can't act." She also wasn't liking Lockhart.

Her classes so far were sadly not that exciting. In Transfiguration, McGonagall spent a good amount of her time reprimanding everyone about summer homework, Defence was a bust, and Halley never thought that the highlight of her day would be screaming plants in Herbology.

"At least we have some hands on experience," Hector said, trying to brighten their moods.

"Yeah, against the vicious pixies. That makes last year such a cakewalk," Rory drawled. She looked at her wand that was emitting a sharp whistling sound. "How about this: When the evil Pixie Lord arrives this year, you two go fight it off while my mum slowly buries me in the ground when I ask for a new wand?"

The rest of the week proved to be even more horrid to Rory. Her wand kept acting up, her acting up wand made classes difficult, Malfoy's attitude rose to meaner heights when the Prophet released the story about the car, and it became even worse when she went to go see Halley at Quidditch practice.

"The only reason why you're on the team," she said to Malfoy. "Is because your daddy knows that the brooms will make up for the lack of skills."

"Weasley," Malfoy drawled. "If you auction off those Cleansweeps then you may get enough gold for a broom like this. Will a museum even buy them?"

"At least no one in the Gryffindor team didn't had to buy their way," Hector said sharply. He looked at her as if she was an unpleasant section in a book that he was reading. "They have pure talent, and that's how they're going to beat you."

"No one asked for your opinion, you filthy Mudblood," Malfoy spat.

Halley had no clue what that word meant, but a flurry of action took over the Gryffindors. Flint dragged Malfoy away before Felicity and Georgia could jump her, Andrew Johnson shrieked at the opposing team, and Rory drew her wand out. Without shaking from any sort of fear, she pointed it at Malfoy's laughing face. "He's worth several of you, you bitch!"

There was a flash of putrid green light—

—which struck Rory instead. The redhead was sent reeling backwards, landing on the grass. Hector was the first one to her aid, shaking her arm. "Oh! Rory! Are you all right?"

Rory shakily sat up and belched a slug.

The Gryffindor team tried to help Rory, although many did not wanted to get near the slime and slugs. The Slytherin team appeared paralysed with laughter. Malfoy especially was howling a high-pitched noise. Furious, Halley fought her way through the Slytherins and pointed the tip of her wand at Malfoy's face. The blonde witch froze and her mouth opened, nothing came out.

"My wand isn't broken," Halley said in a low voice. Letting that sink in, she put her wand away and went to go help her friend.

* * *

"Please tell me that you have something nice planned?" Rory asked in a whisper.

Halley shivered as a ghost went through her elbow. "Um…"

"This is brilliant!" Hector exclaimed. He was looking around the Deathday Party with excited eyes. "Do you think the Headless Hunt will answer some of my questions? I've read so much about them."

"He doesn't count," Rory said crossly to Halley who was about to voice that Hector was happy.

"I found out that Filch is going to be taking a Kwikspell course." That sounded almost positive in Halley's mind.

"How is that happy?" her friend demanded. "That's bloody depressing, that's what." With a darkening scowl, she grabbed Hector by the elbow and yanked him closer to her. "You're going to keep me warm, it feels like the dead of winter here."

Thee three shuffled together, avoiding the rotten food and a giggling Peeves. "I don't think we'll be coming next year," Halley said under the moaning music.

"Such shame," Rory snapped. "Here I was hoping to enchant an axe for Nick. Pity that he'll never be getting it."

"It takes a powerful charm to do that," Hector said. His eyes hadn't left the crowd of ghosts wearing medieval gowns. "It doesn't work on large and heavy objects, anyway. Too much can go wrong if you make something intangible."

"There you go," Rory mumbled. "Ruining my fun and Nick's chance of achieving his dreams."

* * *

"Sir Patrick kept looking at you oddly," Hector said after they made their escape. "But don't you think it's fascinating that he knew an ancestor of yours?"

"I've had enough of dead people for one night," Rory said. "We should hurry up before all the food is gone."

Halley was more inclined to agree with Rory. Their time at the party took a strange turn when the Headless Hunt arrived. When Sir Patrick saw her, he told her that she looked much like some ancestor of hers and should be in less trouble than what he had been in. Whatever that was, Halley never got to find out when Sir Patrick went to go play Headless Hockey with his men during Nick's speech.

_"Rip…tear…kill…"_

Halley froze on the spot. It was the same voice that she had heard in Lockhart's office. The hairs on the back of her neck rose, and she immediately felt sick.

"Guys," she said weakly. "Did you heard that?"

"The sound of my dying stomach?" Rory said.

_"Shh—"_ Halley raised a hand, attempting to hear anything with all her might else. She squinted, trying to find the source. "It's that voice—"

_"…soo hungry…for so long…"_

"Listen!" Halley said urgently, her voice shrill. Hector and Rory watched her.

_"…Kill…time to kill…"_

The voice was getting fainter, farther away. Halley was sure it was moving upwards. Fear and excitement grappled inside of her as she raised her head towards the ceiling. How was it doing that? Her mind filled with ideas such as phantoms and ghosts… But now it wasn't the time to speculate, it was the time to run.

"This way!" she shouted, already starting to run upstairs. She skidded into the entrance hall, ears straining to pick anything up besides the clamour from the Halloween Feast. She sprinted up the marble staircase to the first floor, her friends clattering behind her.

"Halley, what're we—"

"SHH!"

Halley stopped running, trying to force herself to hear the voice. Distantly, from the floor above, and growing fainter, the voice was still there.

_"…I smell blood…I SMELL BLOOD!" _

Her stomach lurched—

"It's going to kill someone!" Halley shouted. "We need to stop it!" Rory and Hector gave her bewildered looks, she ignored them and pounded up the next flight of stairs as quick as she could. Maybe if she was fast enough she could stop the voice and save the person? Maybe it could all be stopped?

The second floor came into view, and Halley hurtled across the whole floor, her heart beating loudly in her ears. She was dimly aware of the pants that Rory and Hector were making, her entire focus was on finding and stopping the voice… She didn't stop running until she found the last, deserted passage. Breathing hard, she tried to hear the voice, but the only sounds in the passageway were the laboured breaths that the three of them were making.

"Halley, what was that about?" said Rory, wiping the sweat off her forehead. Her plait had escaped and her long hair was loose over her shoulders. "I heard nothing, you know."

Hector gave a sudden gasp and pointed down the corridor. "Look!"

The approached through the thick darkness, seeing shinning on the wall ahead. Large words were painted between the two windows, the torchlight giving it an eerie glisten. The words were made in something thick and red and was pooling on the floor. Halley's stomach plummeted and she felt deathly cold.

_THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE. _


	4. The Diary and the Chamber

**AN: Huzzah for Chamber of Secrets being over! Thanks to everyone who is reading, and I would love to see what you guys think so far. Also a quick note with school starting soon my weekly schedule will be changing. Eh, that's life. **

**I hope you enjoy the not so subtle shout-out to another popular series, but I think I balanced the joking with some paraphrased quotes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer hiding somewhere (owned by the wonderful Joss Whedon—episodes Becoming Part II and Chosen). I also tried to change the dialogue at the end with her and Voldemort the best I could without making them out of character, so let me know how it works. I'm also trying to make this different from the other GWL fics by not copying every single damn word of the series. There are some different reactions to keep in mind about.**

**And you guys do know that SOPA _isn't_ coming back, right? There's been a massive misunderstanding with that. **

**Disclaimer**: Just because JK Rowling used a pseudonym doesn't mean that I'm her. Bloomsbury and Warner Bros makes sure of that.

**Title**: Sun in its Flight: Chamber of Secrets: The Diary and the Chamber

**Words**: 8K

**Summary**: The Girl-Who-Lived, the smartest wizard of his age, and the second youngest girl of seven. What could possibly go wrong at Hogwarts? A take on seven years with a gender-bended cast with canon ships, too.

* * *

Halley wondered how much worst it could get.

She knew at some level she was jinxing herself for more trouble, but between Lockhart, Malfoy, and the bit about the Chamber of Secrets being opened was making her year very sour so far. Filch at the moment seemed to hate her even more, and would find opportunities to blame her for talking too loud and sulking around the corridors to see if she had left any mud from Quidditch practice. Any day now, and Halley was going to have to use her Invisibility Cloak to hide from him.

The attack had changed the attitudes of several students. Hector had all but exiled himself to the library, and would only leave by Rory grabbing him by the back of his robe and dragging him out. Rory appeared to have snapped out of her dark mood, and was shuffled to being the lone optimist in their group with using badly-times jokes. Poor Gabriel, though, the attack had disturbed him greatly, and Rory's jokes were taking on a more negative affect when trying to cheer him up. Even her classmates were treating Halley differently, more whispers were following her and strange looks were being pointed at her direction.

_Honestly, _Halley thought during breakfast. She stared dejectedly into her bowl of cereal and milk. _It's not like I'm asking for danger and trouble to follow me…_

"It's very strange, isn't?" Hector asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"That you didn't go straight to the library before class?" Rory jibbed. "I know, you really surprised me there."

"Not that," he sighed. Expressing more annoyance at the words, he looked at Halley when speaking instead. "All of the copies of _Hogwarts: A History_ are gone! I mean every copy and version that this school has is off the shelves! And you wouldn't believe how long the waiting list is for any available ones."

"I thought you owned a copy already?" Halley said, remembering clearly about being told to read it several times last year.

Hector coughed and his cheeks went pink. "Well…"

The spoon in Rory's hand dropped and fell into her bowl, splashing milk all over her potions essay that she forgot to finish up until now. "You forgot to bring a book?" She placed a hand over his forehead, checking his temperature. "Are you sick?"

"I'm fine," Hector insisted, pushing her hand away. "It was a hard decision, but I had no room with Lockhart's books in my trunk. You do know what this means, right?"

"That we can blame Lockhart for something?" Halley asked hopefully.

A hint of a smile appeared on his mouth, but he fought it down. "No. It means that the Chamber of Secrets is connected to Hogwarts' history! Isn't perfect that we're going to History of Magic next?" He smiled brightly.

"What makes you think Binns is going to tell us anything?" Rory argued. "The ghost can hardly even get our names right. What are the chances of him even knowing a single thing about the Chamber of Secrets?"

* * *

A class period later had left Hector feeling very happy. "What was that you said?" He playfully jostled Rory's shoulder. "You said something very certain this morning."

"I refuse to say anything else," Rory complied dryly. She turned toward Halley, ignoring how victorious Hector was looking. "That was useful, wasn't? Just what I wanted to know after a fulfilling breakfast was how bloody mad Salazar Slytherin was, and how he wanted to clean the school. I wonder how different things would had been if he had Mrs Skower's All-Purposes Magical Mess Remover."

Halley laughed but Hector was disappointed. "This isn't funny, you two. You heard what Binns said, there's a great horror in the Chamber that only the true Heir can control. Doesn't that worry you?"

"Would you prefer if I was teary about it? Cry like a little girl?" There was a scathing expression on Rory's face. "What's wrong with trying to get a laugh when everything is miserable?"

Hoping not to witness another argument, Halley intervened by stepping between her two friends, giving them some distance. "It's a good thing that we know the legend now," she said forcefully. "I'm sure that we can find more leads, right?"

Hector and Rory looked at each other quickly, and then put their future argument away. "I bet it's Malfoy," she said instantly.

_"Rory—"_

Then Halley never felt so glad to see Cora Creevey nearby. "Hiya, Halley!" the younger Gryffindor said, struggling to keep up with them.

"Hullo, Cora," Halley said automatically. "How are you?"

"Well, there's this girl in my class saying that you're—" But Cora was so small that the crowd of people swept her away, and the only thing Halley could hear was a squeak of good bye before the mousy girl was gone.

"I wonder what the girl in her class was saying about you?" Hector wondered. "I hope it was something pleasant. That would be nice."

Halley's stomach dropped and she suddenly felt very cold. She had a completely different feeling that was associated with the looks and whispers. "Nothing more pleasant than being thought that I'm the Heir of Slytherin."

"I hate to ruin the moment," Rory said. "But I have the strangest feeling that you're in Gryffindor. I don't see how that works if you're the Heir and all."

Hector snorted.

* * *

"When you said find more leads," Rory grumbled. You didn't mean for it to involve spiders, right?" She shuddered and brushed at her arms.

"I was going to say something about butterflies, but you know what's next," Halley said. They were standing in front of the door to the girl's bathroom with the large _Out of Order_ sign attached to the front. Girls were suggested on not entering that bathroom for several reasons, and they were about to face the biggest reason why. "We better find something useful in here."

"What's so terrifying about a bathroom?" Hector asked.

"Oh, you'll see," Rory muttered darkly, opening the door. "Hullo, Myrtle!" she announced.

Entering the depressing bathroom, the first thing Halley saw was Moaning Myrtle floating above the tank for a toilet, picking at a spot on her chin. The ghost gave a little shriek at seeing then, and then floated up too close to their faces. "What's _he_ doing here?" she demanded, glaring at Hector. "This is a girl's bathroom, and he's not a girl!"

Rory faked a gasp. "What?" She looked up and down at Hector, flabbergasted. "You're not a girl?!"

"We wanted to show him how nice this was," Halley said hurriedly. "Myrtle, have you seen anything strange here lately?"

"Why would I see anything?" the ghost sniffed. "No one ever wants to visit me. I have feelings you know, even if I'm dead I should still matter to the living."

"We care for you very much," Rory said dully. "We're here now, aren't we?"

"Then why haven't you two visited me before?"

Rory and Halley went very quiet.

The conversation went very downhill from there.

* * *

They were walking to their next class feeling very unsatisfied with their work. With wet shoes and low spirits, they trudged their way to Defence Against the Dark Arts. They tried to discuss about who could be the Heir. Halley and Rory were determined that it was Malfoy due to her atrocious behaviour that she was lately showing, but Hector wanted proof. Moaning Myrtle had given them nothing useful, and almost made them late with telling them the story of her death that no one was paying attention to. They'd managed to leave after Myrtle tried to make Halley promise that they were going to become best friends.

"Remind me this," Rory said. "If I die and become a ghost then make sure it's not in the bathroom. I would rather haunt my mum's kitchen forever."

"I wouldn't mind the library," Hector mused. His eyes went glassy at the idea of being surrounded by all of those books for all eternity. Halley figured that happiness would be over once he read every single book that was there. Then the rest would be a very sad eternity.

"Quidditch Pitch," she said. "That'll be nice." Then it dawned on her that maybe they shouldn't be discussing this with a bloodthirsty monster on the loose. "I wonder what Lockhart has in store for us today?"

"Probably be gloating about some miraculous potion he made." Rory's smile turned wry. "Bet it cures balding and that's what awarded him an Order of Merlin.

"That's brilliant!" Hector exclaimed suddenly. He stopped walking and his face lit up. "I got it!"

Halley quirked an eyebrow. "Balding?"

"No, there's something about a potion…let me think…" He patted down his curls, lost in thought. "I remember reading some for Potions, and it referenced something that could help us find proof."

"Well? What is it?" Rory demanded. "A truth potion of some kind?"

"I think the book about it is in the Restricted Section."

Halley groaned into her cupped hands. "Then we're doomed. No teacher is going to give us access to it."

Hector opened Lockhart's door and they went inside for another miserable day in his class. Rory and Halley made sure to sit in the back of the room together so that Lockhart wouldn't make them participate. Hector, caring more about his grades, sat up in the front. Halley slumped her head in her crossed arms, hoping that seeming smaller would make Lockhart not pick on her to do anything. Last week he had her reenacting a scene from _Year with the Yeti_. She was the scared villager and poor Nellie was the yeti as Lockhart instructed them what to do.

The aforementioned teacher swaggered inside the room and was wearing another set of lilac robes. "Let me assure you all that you have nothing to fear. The Dark Force Defence League accepts nothing but the best," he said to the bored students. "This Slytherin monster hasn't faced anything yet!" He brandished his wand proudly for proof.

"And neither has the monster," Rory muttered in Halley's ear.

"Today," Lockhart continued. He walked down the aisle of the desk and waved his wand so that their books would open to a certain page. "We will be discussing the third chapter of _Voyages with Vampires_. I will need two students to act out the scene with me being pitied against the dread vampire Edwin. I pick…" He waved his wand, making the moment more dramatic by drawing the scene out harrowingly. "You, Miss Potter!" He swirled around on his feet. "You, too, Mr Granger!"

Rory gave Halley a consoling pat on the back before she grudgingly stepped up in the front of the class. Hector joined her and looked no happier than she was.

Lockhart was obviously oblivious to their pain. "In this chapter of my book, I have found out that there was a coven of vampires living in this small village. One of them fell in love with a muggle, and everyone was terrified that he was going to turn her to make her into his immortal bride…"

The rest of the time passed slowly and painfully as Hector pretended to held Halley captive as Lockhart would come to her rescue with the help of a powerful Transfiguration spell and some stolen blood. Personally, she found the whole thing to be tedious and awkward playing the role of Isobel the deluded muggle who fell madly in love with Edwin the bemoaning vampire. She was almost happy at the end when Lockhart saved the girl and banished the vampire from the village. Their romance made her feel very uncomfortable.

Lockhart ended up saving Isobel by luring Edwin away with the stolen blood. Creating more of a diversion by transfiguring the blood into lettuce, they made their escape in a charmed carriage and made it out safely by sunrise. Even being new to the magical world, Halley thought the entire tale was too much, even coming from Lockhart's mouth.

"Do you want me to laugh now?" Rory asked at the end of class. She was waiting by the door with Halley's bag. She was grinning toothily as the shorter girl took her bag glumly.

"No."

"Don't worry, Isobel," Rory said in a cloying voice. "One day dear Edwin will come back for you—" Her teasing was cut off short when she saw Hector walking up to Lockhart. "What's he doing?"

Halley gawked as she saw Hector smiling and held his copy of _Voyages with Vampires_ out to Lockhart. "Professor," he said sweetly. "Your work has inspired me greatly, and now I know I would love to do what you do: stopping monsters, saving people, and teaching others how to fight against evil. Can I have your autograph?"

Now Rory was gawking. "What?"

* * *

Later that day Hector was reading over the book that he got from the Restricted Section. He was smiling widely as he searched for the potion.

"Stop looking so happy," Rory complained. "I get it. You're having a fantastic day so far. We get it."

"When will we get our good days?" Halley asked her.

"Never." The redhead stretched her arms out and yawned. "I still say that it's Malfoy."

Hector tutted.

"Rory has a point," Halley said. "Look at Malfoy's family. The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin, she's always boasting about it. They could easily be Slytherin's descendants… But how do we prove it? It's not like we can go up and question her or anything."

"I say we follow her with your cloak." Rory rubbed her hands together, smiling at the idea. "Wouldn't that be fun? We can pretend to be Peeves just to mess with her!"

"There might be a way," Hector spoke up. "Of course, it would be difficult. And dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules, I expect… What we'd need to do is to get inside the Slytherin common room and ask Malfoy a few questions without her realising it's us."

"But that's impossible," Halley said.

"No, it's not," Hector said. "All we'd need would be some Polyjuice Potion..." He held the book up and showed them the page that had some very upsetting illustrations. "All we need after making the potion are samples of the people that we want to impersonate."

"Because every potion is going to taste fantastic with Eau du Toenail in it," Rory snarked.

Halley peered closer at the images. They were very precise and showed a step-by-step process of what taking Polyjuice was like. It looked very unpleasant and the pictures underneath showed what would happen if the potion was made incorrectly. Some of the illustrated pictures had people with tentacles, extra eyeballs, and one screaming witch even had an extra nose protruding from her forehead. "Let's do it," Halley said.

* * *

Unfortunately, the potion was going to take longer to make than they thought. It was a very complex potion that required a delicate amount of time, rare ingredients, and patience. The last was something that neither of the three had in large amounts. New setbacks got in their way in the forms of more homework, Priscilla who was keeping a close eye on them, and then there was Halley's new injury.

"Look on the bright side," Rory said by her bed. "You are now very flexible. I'm sure that can come with some great uses."

"My bones are _gone!" _Halley never knew how high her voice could get. "All my _bones_ in my arm are _gone! Look at it!" _She wiggled the bone-less arm, and the rubbery feeling was hair-raising.

"Don't worry," Hector assured her. He looked over his shoulder to see if Madame Promfrey was listening. "You go get better and Roy and I will start on the potion. Okay?"

"You guys want me to do nothing?"

"Getting Skele-Gro isn't doing nothing," Rory clarified. Her face appeared queasy, her freckles highlighted by the green on her face. "Good luck, mate!"

Then Halley experienced one of the worst tasting and painful potion of her life.

* * *

"Got any other wicked powers that you need to tell me about?" Rory asked the day after the disastrous Duelling Club meeting. They were during out in their dorm, and away from all of the whispers and new rumours about Halley being a dark and evil witch that was out to kill everyone.

"I honestly thought that was normal." Halley's mouth felt dry and hard to use. There was a cold pit of worry stuck in her stomach. "Why can't I do anything right?"

"Maybe you can control the Slytherins now?" The joke fell flat as Halley groaned into her pillow. "What?" her friend scoffed. "I'm working with new material here. Just wait until you hear what the twins got in mind."

* * *

"Remind me again why I had a crush on Lockhart?" Rory complained. They were walking out of the dungeons in which it was a terrible time. The stupid cupids had made Snape into an even worse mood, and was now handing detentions out as if they were candy on Halloween. Hector had already gone ahead, mentioning a quick word about needing something in the library.

"Must be his sparkling personality and sharp wit," Halley remarked. Her hand had unconsciously moved to her front pocket, closed protectively on the diary that she found. She was itching to find any connections between T Riddle and the Chamber of Secrets. "At least he has nice hair."

Rory muttered something under her breath and her face went pink.

Halley hid her smile by putting the diary in her bag. "Now you remind me to give this to Hector when I get the chance. He'll probably get better luck than us."

Now entering a hall filled with dazed first years, which happened to include Gabriel Weasley, Halley tried to escape when seeing an ill-tempered dwarf headed in her direction. The dwarf, however, cut his way through the crowd by kicking people's shins, and reached her before she'd gone two paces.

"I've got a musical message to deliver to 'Alley Potter in person," he said, twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way.

Rory sniggered. Halley pushed her away, hoping to create a pathway through a forming crowd. "Can we do this later?"

"Stay still!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Halley's bag and pulling her back.

"Let me go!" Halley snarled, tugging. With a loud ripping noise, her bag split in two. Her books, wand, parchment, and quill spilled onto the floor and her inkbottle smashed over everything.

Halley scrambled around, trying to pick it all up before the dwarf started singing, causing something of a holdup in the corridor. She could hear Rory squabbling at some students to let her through to help

"Who here got a valentine?" came the cold, drawling voice of Daria Malfoy. Her eyes flashed at seeing Halley stuffing everything in her ripped bag. "Potter, surely it can't be you?"

"What's all this commotion?" said another familiar voice as Priscilla Weasley arrived.

Losing her head, Halley tried to make a run for it, but the dwarf seized her around the knees and brought her crashing to the floor.

"Right," he said, sitting on Halley's ankles. "Here is your singing valentine:

_Her eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,_

_Her hair is as dark as a blackboard._

_I wish she was mine, she's really divine,_

_The hero who conquered the Dark Lord."_

Halley would had given everything in her Gringotts account _and_ her broom to just evaporate right there. She couldn't even bring herself to laugh along with everyone else and felt numb from embarrassment. Priscilla shouted at everyone to leave, and Rory was able to force her way through the crowd and help Halley up. It was too late, though, and she saw Malfoy stoop and snatch up something of hers. Leering, the Slytherin showed it to Crabbe and Goyle, and Halley realised that she'd got Riddle's diary.

"Give that back," said Halley quietly.

"Wonder what Potter's written in this?" said Malfoy, who obviously hadn't noticed the year on the cover and thought she had Halley's own diary. A hush fell over the onlookers. Gabriel was staring from the diary to Halley, looking terrified. "Got any more dark secrets in here?"

"Malfoy, hand it over," Priscilla said tiredly. "No one has time for your immature games."

"Let me have a look here first," said Malfoy, waving the diary tauntingly at Halley.

Priscilla said, "As a school prefect —" but Halley had lost her temper. She pulled out her wand and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" and just as Snape had disarmed Lockhart, so Malfoy found the diary shooting out of her hand into the air. Rory, grinning broadly, caught it.

"Sorry to spare you on any reading," she said, sticking her tongue out.

"Honestly!" said Priscilla loudly. She glared at them. "Rory, Halley, I'm ashamed of you two. No magic in the corridors and I'm going to report that!"

Halley didn't cared at that point, she was one-up on Malfoy, and that was worth five points from Gryffindor any day. Malfoy was looking furious, and as Gabriel passed her to enter his classroom, she yelled spitefully after him, "I doubt you'll be seeing any more valentines to Potter!"

Rory struck her face with the book, moaning. "I really shouldn't had laughed earlier."

* * *

"It's not the best idea to walk alone now," Halley said. She slung her messenger bag over her shoulder. "Here, I'll go with you and we can pick Rory up at detention." She was finished with doing a quick fly around the pitch to clear her mind. When touching the ground she had saw Gabriel sitting glumly at the stands. It was a week since the incident with the valentine and she wasn't sure how to talk to him about it.

Gabriel looked up from his feet, fidgeting. He had a very pale face. "Where's Hector?"

"He's helping Nellie with potions. Snape's a git," she said, knowing that the last part would explain it. That gained a small smile on the boy's face. "Come on, it's getting cold."

They walked in silence on their way back to the castle. Halley kept looking over at him, trying to say something, but his sad face was disarming. She wasn't so sure how he was faring so far this year, and she hadn't seen him with any friends, come to think of it. That thought was very depressing seeing how she couldn't imagine her year without Rory and Hector.

"It gets better," she blurted out suddenly. Gabriel stopped walking and looked at her oddly. "School, I mean. We don't usually have a monster lurking about. You'll see how things how next year."

"That's g-good," he mumbled. "Um, what's Rory in detention for?"

"She and Julia Finch-Fletchley got into a small argument." Halley felt her cheeks turning pink. Rory had confronted Julia and told her to stop the rumours, and Julia had told her some very rude things about her choice in friends. A small duel was about to break out when McGonagall walked in on them. Halley then tugged on the collar of her jumper, knowing what she was going to say next. "About that valentine…"

Any remaining colour left Gabriel's face.

"It was…nice," Halley decided on. "I don't get much valentines and it was sweet of you, but it was really bad timing, you know?"

He was blushing worst than he did over the summer.

* * *

Rory let her head fall on the dashboard of the car. "Killer spiders. Giant spiders. Killer giant monster spiders."

"So that's what they were," Halley wheezed, fighting to keep herself together with the badly used sarcasm. "I thought they were some really nice beetles or something."

"I went up against killer spiders for Hector," Rory realised. Her face was a sickly sort of colour and the uneven trip from the car wasn't helping. "They were going to eat us and I did it all for him."

"That is sweet of you." Halley looked up and she could see patches of the sky where the trees were thinning out.

The car stopped so suddenly that they were nearly thrown into the windshield. They had reached the edge of the forest. Fang flung himself at the window in his anxiety to get out, and when Halley opened the door, he shot off through the trees to Hagrid's house, tail between his legs. Halley got out of the car next and found that she had lost all feeling in her legs.

Wobbling around the car until she got a sense of feeling back, she waited for Rory to come out. She rapped her fingers on the raised window. "You can come out now. I don't think the spiders are stupid enough to come this close to the castle."

With even shakier legs Rory scrambled out. Her neck was stiff and her eyes wide, but she was alive for the moment. They gave the car a final wave and watched it reversed back into the forest and disappeared into the trees and hidden monsters.

Halley went back into Hagrid's cabin to get the Invisibility Cloak. Fang was trembling under a blanket in his basket. When Halley got outside again, she found Rory being violently sick in the pumpkin patch. Handing her a crumpled tissue from her pocket, the redhead cleaned herself up

_"You're a brave one, _the hat had said," she mocked. "I don't think I was brave."

"I think you were," Halley assured her. "You're alive, too."

"Yeah, yeah." Rory wiped her mouth with her sleeve. "Follow the spiders_—pft!_ I say we follow the butterflies next."

* * *

"Gabriel!" Halley muttered, sprinting to him and dropping to her knees. "Gabriel — don't be dead — please don't be dead —" She grabbed Gabriel's shoulders, and turned him over. His face was white as snow, and as cold, yet his eyes were closed, so he wasn't Petrified. But then he must be… No, she refused to believe it. Pressing her fingers to his neck, she let out a small gasp at feeling his slow pulse.

"Gabriel, please wake up," Halley muttered desperately, shaking him. Gabriel's head lolled hopelessly from side to side like a doll's.

"Young Weasley won't be waking," said a soft voice.

Halley jumped and spun around on her knees.

A familiar boy with dark hair and predatory features was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Halley were looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him.

"Tom — Tom Riddle?"

Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Halley's face.

"What d'you mean, he won't wake?" Halley said desperately. "He's not dead, I can feel his pulse!"

"He's just there," said Riddle. "But only just. Amazing how fragile a mortal life can be."

Halley stared at him. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen. Something was very wrong about this, so very wrong indeed.

"Are you a poltergeist?" Halley said uncertainly, hoping that his oddly strong colouring would explain it.

"A memory," said Riddle quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."

He pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary Halley had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, Halley wondered how it had got there — but there were more pressing matters to deal with.

"You've got to help me, Tom," Halley said, raising Gabriel's head again. "Please, I need to get him out of here, and I need to get my friend and a teacher out of here to safety. There's a basilisk loose and we may not have much time left."

Riddle didn't move. Halley, sweating, managed to hoist Gabriel half off the floor, and bent to pick up her wand again.

But her wand had gone.

She looked up. Riddle was still watching her — twirling Halley's wand between his long fingers. A terrible smile curled at the corners of his mouth.

"Give it here, Riddle." Halley held her hand out. "Give me my wand before the basilisk comes."

"It won't come until it is called," said Riddle calmly, self he was talking about the weather and nothing more.

Halley lowered Gabriel back onto the floor, unable to hold him up any longer.

"Listen," she said. "We're all going to die of we can't get out of here, _so give me my wand." _

Riddle's smile broadened. "You won't be needing it," he said. "You, Miss Halley Potter, you have no idea how long I've been waiting to see you, to talk to you. I believe it's high-time for us to have a chat."

"Look," said Halley, losing patience, "I can see how being in here can make one go mad. We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later —"

"We're going to talk now," said Riddle, still smiling broadly, and he pocketed Halley's wand.

Halley stared at him. There was something very funny going on here…

"How did Gabriel get like this?" she asked slowly.

"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly. "And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Gabriel Weasley's like this is because he opened his heart and spilled all his secrets to an invisible stranger."

"What are you talking about?" said Halley.

"The diary," said Riddle. "My diary, well, the boy called it a journal. Silly little Gabriel's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all his pitiful worries and woes — how his sisters tease him, how he had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how —" Riddle's eyes glinted. "— how he didn't think the wonderful and good and famous Halley Potter would ever like him…"

All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Halley's face. There was an almost hungry look in them.

"You wouldn't believe how tedious it was to listen to the thoughts of an eleven-year-old boy," he went on. "I remained patient and kind, offerings advice here and there to strengthen his trust in me. Gabriel simply loved me. _No one's ever understood me like you, Tom… I'm so glad I've got this journal to confide in… It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket…_"

Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Halley's neck.

"I've always been a charming person, Halley, No one would ever connect such horrible things back to me because they trusted me so much. So Gabriel poured out his soul to me, and his soul happened to be exactly what I wanted… Each time he wrote a childhood memory or whatever happened in class I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Mr Weasley—a youngest son of seven. A more curious and wonderful thing about this was that I was soon able to pour some of my soul back into him, giving him a small taste of what it was like to be me."

"What d'you mean?" said Halley, whose mouth had gone very dry. A part of her mind was trembling with fear at what horrors Riddle had put Gabriel through.

"Haven't you guessed yet, Halley Potter?" said Riddle softly. "Gabriel Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. It was all him. A little boy so scared of being alone spread so much fear inside these halls. He set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."

"No," Halley whispered.

"Yes," said Riddle, calmly. "It was so amusing to see the boy so confused and scared, he really had no clue what was going on. His newer journal entries became so much more interesting…

"Dear Tom," he recited, watching Halley's horrified face, "'rooster feathers are all over me, and I have no clue how they got there. I don't think I was near Hagrid's all day. Dear Tom, some thing horrible happened tonight, a cat was attacked. And I can't remember anything about that night except for the paint on my front. Dear Tom, my sisters keep telling me that I'm pale and don't look like myself, I'm getting very scared with these nightmares that I'm having… There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad… I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom!'"

Harry's fists were clenched, the nails digging deep into her palms enough to draw blood.

"It took such a long time for the stupid boy to come to his senses and to stop trusting me," said Riddle. "Oh, he struggled and he fought, thinking he was smarter than me. He tried to go to a teacher but my hold was too strong. He was only able to dispose the diary. And that's where you came in, Halley. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet…"

"And why did you want to meet me?" said Halley. Anger was coursing through her, and it was an effort to keep her voice steady.

"Well, you see, Gabriel told me all about you, Halley," said Riddle. "Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Halley's forehead, and their expression grew hungrier. "I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. And, honestly, showing you Hagrid to gain my trust was almost too easy."

"You framed my friend," Halley's voice was shaking. "You sent him to Azkaban. You ruined his life!"

Riddle laughed his high laugh again.

"It was my word against Hagrid's, Halley. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student… on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls… but I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realise that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance… as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power!

"Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed… Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did…"

"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you," said Halley, her teeth gritted.

"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled," said Riddle carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."

"Well, you haven't finished it," said Halley triumphantly. "You couldn't even kill a cat! Gabriel stopped you from killing anyone this time, Riddle. And in a few hours the draught is going to be ready, and all of your stupid work on cleaning the school will be over."

"Haven't I already told you," said Riddle quietly, "that killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore? For many months now, my new target has been—you.

Halley stared at him.

"I was furious when the boy got rid of me, but he didn't even knew that I still had a hold of him. Imagine how frightening it must had been for him when he saw that you had the diary. He was terrified that you were going to blame him, and all I wanted was the diary back. So when your Mudblood friend was away, I made sure that the diary was retrieved. Then it was becoming obvious that you were onto something, and you and your little friends. And you have such _honourable_ and _noble_ feelings to go to any lengths to save your friends, it made it rather easy to make you alone…

"So I made Gabriel write his own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. Alas, he was no longer strong enough to fight me. All of the writing has poured too much into me, enough to let me leave its pages at last… I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Halley Potter."

"I don't want to hear it," Halley spat, fists still clenched.

"Yes, you do," said Riddle, smiling pleasantly, "how is it that you — a girl, a singular, idiotic girl with no extraordinary magical talent managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? You escaped with nothing but a scar while one of the greatest wizards that has even existed was destroyed!"

There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now. He polished demeanour was officially gone with the savage look painted over his stark features. She could see the cruel and hateful monster hiding under his skin.

"But Voldemort was after your time…" said Halley slowly. The realisation dawned on her. "No. You can't be…"

"Voldemort," said Riddle softly, his serpentine smile curling on the edges of his mouth, "is my past, present, and future, Halley Potter…

"You see?" he whispered. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? Not with the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself in my veins, giving me much more power than the weak blood of my father's. He, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Halley — my new name has power. It has strength. It has _fear_. This is the name that has fashioned me into one of the greatest sorcerers in the world!"

Halley's brain seemed to have jammed. She stared numbly at Riddle, at the orphaned boy who had grown up to murder Halley's own parents, and so many others… It was terrifying to see how much madness and power one person could have. At last she forced herself to speak.

"You're not," she said, her quiet voice full of raw hatred.

"Not what?" snapped Riddle.

"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," said Halley, breathing fast. "Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. The Chocolate Frog cards even call him one of the best. You, even when you were alive couldn't even look at Hogwarts without Dumbledore making you so afraid. And I bet he saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days —"

The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look. "You dare, Potter? It is you that is now alone in my territory with no friends, no wand, no hope. Just a girl standing near the corpse of a foolish boy, and will be defeated by me for the last time. You both won't even live through the next hour, so why even try?"

"Because I'm going to win," Halley said, allowing herself to smile at her small victory. "People are gong to wake up, Dumbledore and Hagrid are going to come back, and I want you to get out of my face so that me and Gabriel can see it happen."

* * *

Their feet fell to the wet floor of the girl's bathroom. Halley spread her arms out to steady her fall and hissed in pain as her hands collided with hard stone. Gasping, the girl looked up to see the three others in a similar state: Rory was holding onto her brother for dear life, Gabriel looked as though his older sister was squeezing the life out of his arm, and Lockhart was staring blankly at his reflection in the water.

"Who is that gorgeous man?" he asked, tilting his head to inspect. "Look at that gleaming teeth! Oh, that beautiful hair!"

Myrtle goggled at them.

"You're alive," she said bluntly to Halley. Halley and her friends shakily stood back up to their feet and checked themselves over for any more injuries.

"There's no need to sound so disappointed," she said grimly, wiping flecks of blood and slime off her glasses. She held them away and winced at seeing the small cracks that would be obscuring more of her vision.

"Oh, well . . . I'd just been thinking . . . if you had died, you'd have been welcome to share my toilet," said Myrtle, smiling too happy at the words. "We can be stall-mates!"

"Urgh!" said Rory as they left the bathroom for the dark, deserted corridor outside. "Halley, I don't want to compete with Myrtle as your best mate!"

"Don't worry," Halley remarked. She held the sword tightly in one hand, afraid that any more monsters may show up. The images of the basilisk and Tom Riddle kept appearing behind her eyelids. Frightening as they were, she had a feeling that they'll be appearing in her nightmares now.

"Where now?" said Rory, with an anxious look at Gabriel. He held his arms stiffly at his sides and didn't meet their eyes. Halley pointed. Fawkes was leading the way, glowing gold along the corridor.

They followed the phoenix, cold, afraid, and with an amnesiac professor who wouldn't stop being amazed by his reflection. Rory accidentally let him get his head knocked by a few torches.

Halley noticed Gabriel's look of pure terror. Though some of his colour had return, his freckles still stood out too sharply. She gestured with her free hand and he silently held onto her hand. His grip was warm, and she could feel him shaking. "You'll be all right," Halley told him in a whisper. "It wasn't your fault."

Gabriel's brown eyes were very large and shiny. He wiped his nose with his other torn and bloodied sleeve, hiccupping. "I-I know. T-thanks for saving m-m-me."

Halley had a feeling that this was going to be a yearly event.

"The Mandrake Draught should be given by now." Rory's face was dazed. "Hector's going to wake up. We're all going to be fine."

"Until new year," Halley pointed out.

"Hush." Rory flicked the shorter girl's shoulder. "Don't ruin it."

* * *

Too soon it was time to go home.

Even with how the year started, Halley didn't wanted to go. She wanted to stay with Lockhart finally sacked, Hector back to normal, and she was heavily assured that she wasn't going to end up like Voldemort. Dumbledore's words about choices swirled through her head during the remaining time at school and gave her some needed clarity. It then felt as though once that Hogwarts was safe and happy again it couldn't last. The summer holiday had to come.

They made use of their last few hours on the train by playfully duelling each other (and Halley was getting rather good at the Disarming Charm), card games, and the twins giving her some last few tips on the art of lock picking. They were discussing ways of using their fireworks in class next year when Halley remembered something.

"Gabriel – what did you see Priscilla doing, that he she want you to tell anyone?" She doubted that it had anything to do with the Chamber, but it was a curious loose end.

"Oh, that," said Gabriel, laughing. Now with the diary being destroyed, he was getting back to normal. He had more colour in his face, he actually smiled and laughed, and was looking more like the happy boy that Halley had seen in the summer before. "Well — Priscilla found herself a boyfriend."

Felicity dropped a stack of books on Georgia's head.

"What? You didn't even think of interrogating him? What sorta brother are you?"

"It's that Ravenclaw prefect, Patrick Clearwater," said Gabriel. "Tall bloke, curly dark hair. That's why she's been acting funny all year, think she's keeping some secret romance from us. I, ah," he coughed. "I walking in on them snogging, and she was so upset when he was — you know — attacked. You won't tease her, will you?" he added anxiously.

"Wouldn't dream of it," said Felicity, who was looking like her birthday had come early.

"Definitely not," said Georgia, sniggering. "We just need to meet him first."

The Hogwarts Express slowed and finally stopped.

Halley pulled out her quill and a bit of parchment and turned to Rory and Hector.

"This is called a telephone number," she told Rory, scribbling it twice, tearing the parchment in two, and handing it to them. "I don't have to worry about Hector, and I told your dad how to use a telephone last summer — he'll know. Call me at the Dursleys', okay? I can't stand another two months with only Daisy to talk to…"

"How hard will it be to use a fellytone?" Rory scoffed. "They look so easy."

"Your aunt and uncle will be proud of you, right?" said Hector as they got off the train and joined the crowd thronging toward the enchanted barrier. "This is the second time you saved the school. I bet that they'll be proud of you risking your life. "

"Proud?" said Halley. "Not with all those times I could have died or done worst—no, they'll except me to try harder next year…"

And together they walked back through the gateway to the Muggle world


End file.
